The hidden church of the Holy Graal, by Arthur Edward Waite

The Early Epochs of the Quest tomb of their mother, and then set forth together. Some time after they arrived at the Castle of Maidens, where Perceval in fine left her in hands of safety. Here there was another office of healing, which is of medicine rather than of anodyne ; but though all the ways of wonder lead to and from the Castle of the Holy Graal, the King of that Castle knew too well the fatality by which he was encompassed to seek, for he would have sought vainly, his relief thereat. Within the merciful precincts of her new asylum Perceval's sister was en- rolled henceforth as a ministering spirit, and thereat the questing knight learned something more concerning the antecedents of his Quest and also of his own family. The Castle of Maidens received wanderers, but sheltered in its ordinary course women only, and a reverend dame under whose rule the whole company abode declared herself a kinswoman of Perceval, being his mother's cousin. The name of his mother was Philoso- fine, and they two had entered Logres together, carrying the Sacred Hallow but this event of the past was ; evidently a part of the historical mystery, and was not to be declared even to the knight of Quest until he had proved himself. He knew now that even from his very beginning he was a scion of the Sacred House, and he might have rested content in his heart that the house would at length receive him. He knew also that it was the sinful state of the land which had caused the Holy Graal to be placed in a concealed sanctuary under the ward of the good King Fisher. Meanwhile the closing had been taken in the degree of his duty towards his sister, and, in the next place he was called to a subsidiary work in the region of filial duty. With whatever offence he could be charged in respect of his mother, she was past the reach of his atonement but his father in chivalry, now in the ; distress of sorcery as at the hands of the sorceresses of Gloucester in the Welsh romance demanded his vengeance. This incident is one of many which would 233

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal make the investigation of Gerbert's materials a quest of high enchantment if only the road were open. Of the duty which was thus imposed and accepted in all the honour of his knighthood, Perceval acquitted him- self with credit, his brief from the Earthly Paradise coming to his aid, and the providence attached thereto ; though differing from the putative archaic romance the event did not lead to the utter destruction of the people of the witch-craft, but of their military hirelings only. The episode, however, has a second object, more important to Perceval than itself, which is to aid in recalling a re- lationship between Blanchefleur and his father in Chivalry as the same is recorded by Chretien and so forward to the root-matter of the poem, which is the marriage of Perceval. As regards this marriage there are two noticeable points, outside the fact that the union itself was the head and crown of exile ordeal. There is (a) the ideal set before the poet, which was to preserve the virginity of Perceval till he had accomplished the Quest of the Graal and () the promise that at some ; time subsequently when that was removed which hin- dered the consummation of the marriage in chastity there should arise, as issue from those high nuptials, the mystic genealogy of the Swan Knight, whereby the Holy Sepulchre would be delivered. It is for this reason that by a convenant which was made between them Blanchefleur remained a maid on the night of her bridal. Of such was the marriage of Perceval, and thereafter he who was lord henceforth of all her lands, holding the sworn fealty of many princes and barons, went forth again into the world to prosecute the Great Quest. Of the virgin bride we hear nothing further, but there can be no doubt that if he had finished with her, as he seems to have planned, Gerbert would have recounted, and did perhaps, the re-union of Blanchefleur and Perceval. I do not conceive that there is any object in pro- longing this summary of a narrative which is protracted 234

The Early Epochs of the Quest in various ways, but has reached its proper term. Some of its later, and, as one would say, redundant episodes occur or recur in the Longer Prose Perceval, but we have no criterion of judgment by which to decide whether one drew from another or both from that common source to which they appeal both. At the end of his probation Perceval is again at the Graal Castle, ostensibly for the third time, and the last mylines of Gerbert repeat, as they stand in text, those which are last of Gautier. I have stated my opinion already, under the necessary reserves, that Gerbert carried his sequel further and produced a conclusion which did not impose upon Perceval under the genius of Manessier two other pilgrimages outwards, but, as in the Parsifal of Wolfram, reconciled his own institution in the Graal Castle with the healing and concurrent prolongation of the old king's life. As regards the sources of the Conte del Graal in what is termed early historical matter, it is only at a late period that we reach accounts which are not interpo- lated obviously, and then they connect with the Book of the Holy Graal and not with the simpler history of De Borron. This is true of Manessier and true in part of Gerbert, but on the understanding that the story of Perceval's mother in the latter case does not represent any other extant narrative, more especially in respect of the circumstances under which the Fisher King became the guardian of the Graal. On the other hand, Gautier gives a few indications which are of the matter of the putative Walter Map. F. IN WHICH SIR GAWAIN is CONSIDERED BRIEFLY AS A COMPANION OF THE HOLY QUEST There are three that give testimony on earth concern- ing the Mystery of the Graal Perceval, Bors and Galahad and the greatest of these is Galahad. This notwith- 235

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal standing, as there are persons who, through a certain mental deviation, turn aside from the highways of Christendom and look for better paths, out of the beaten track, in the issues of obscure heresy, so it has happened that scholarship, without setting aside the great heroes of research, has discovered some vague predilection for the adventurous and courtly Sir Gawain. They have been led even to think that he was the first popular hero of the Great Quest. If the evidence can be held as sufficient and it is tolerable in certain directions I suppose that I should waste my time by saying that it does not signify, any more than the preference of Jewry for Barabbas rather than Christ could accredit the Jewish robber with a valid or pos- sible title. In order to strengthen the view, scholarship has supposed certain speculative versions, now more lost than regrettable, which present Gawain more fully as the quest-hero than any document which is extant. In such event these versions were like the poem of Chretien de Troyes, as it was judged by Wolfram that is to say, they told the wrong story. At the same time there are several accessory considerations which call for mention. Gawain was exactly the kind of character who would be disposed to initiate and undertake all kinds of quests, high and low. That he was a popular Graal hero might mean that some of his chroniclers did not see exactly why his methods and mode of life should create a barrier. It must be admitted also that for many purposes of the Greater Mysteries it is possible that the merely continent man requires a more express preparation than one of the opposite tendency in certain cases. I think further that the old romancists had in their minds a distinction between the continuity of the sin in Lancelot and the sporadic misdemeanours of Gawain, as also between the essential gravity of the particular offence in the two con- trasted instances. There is the fullest evidence of this in respect of Guinevere, when considered side by side with other heroines of the cycles. Moreover, the romances 236

The Early Epochs of the Quest reflected the unquestioned concensus of opinion at the period regarding the barren woman, and it seems clear that the unfailing fidelity with which plenary favours were granted by maidens in the matter of a covenant fulfilled, and the frankness which permitted such favours to rank as the term of reward, had its root in the sentiment that, except in houses of religion, the womb which bore no fruit was under a greater interdict than that which con- ceived without consecration by the sacred offices of the Church. This must be remembered when the literature suggests, as it will, that the chivalry of King Arthur's court translated in an inverted manner the institutes of heaven that it was not very particular about marrying ; and giving in marriage ; and that it seemed to have as- sumed to itself an indulgence, both general and particular, to follow the untinctured office of Nature without much consciousness of a stigma attaching thereto. Finally, it is just to add that the later romances manifest a set purpose to depict Gawain in blacker colours exceedingly than the earlier texts warrant. For the rest, and from the mystic standpoint, it seems pertinent to say that while there is no period at which it was customary on the part of the Church to impose celibacy as an ideal on those who lived in the world, and while from most of the higher standpoints the grace of chastity is less in its simple possession than in its im- passioned recovery, we have to remember that the great masters do not marry because of the Divine Union. The connection in Chretien between Gawain and the Graal Quest arises out of a challenge which he had accepted to clear himself of a charge of murder, as to which it was a matter of agreement that if he could find and bring back the Lance which bleeds he should be excused from returning to withstand the ordeal by battle. Out of this condition certain codices present the visit of Gawain to Hethe Graal Castle very early in the version of Gautier. beheld, firstly, a bier and, secondly, all the Hallows, asked the required question, and was told by the Royal Warden 237

\"The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal that if he could resolder the Broken Sword he should know (a) why the beautiful maiden who carried the Sacred Vessel was dissolved in tears () why a bier ; formed part of the pageant ; and (<:) whose body was laid thereon. These points are peculiar to Gautier and his connections. The experiment with the Sword proved, however, a failure Gawain learned nothing ; he fell ; asleep after hearing the discourse of the King, who ex- plained what was wanting in him and on awaking next ; morning he discovered himself in the open country, with his horse and his arms close by him. It is obvious that he had found the Lance, but he had not carried it away, and for this reason he set out to take up the challenge. King Arthur, however, intervened, and the matter was settled in peace. The codices which embody this account give much more extended particulars of another visit which was paid by Gawain to the Castle but it is obvious that ; they are exclusive mutually, and the alternative texts which omit the first visit, and determine in a different sense the question of the accusation and the ordeal, are for the quest of Gawain the logical and preferable texts. Second or first, on this occasion, nothing was further from the mind of the character in chief than to go on the Quest of the Graal, nor was he concerned with the covenant of any challenge. He assumed the responsi- bility of a knight who was slain by a hand invisible when riding under his safe conduct. The identity of this knight is never disclosed, but Gawain wore his armour and was carried by his steed, who had mysterious fore- knowledge of the way, to a destination of which he him- Heself could dream nothing. arrived at his term in due course, but what took place was the reception of a masquerading neophyte, who was unintroduced, un- warranted and unqualified. In place of being he that was to come, they had still to look for another but ; his harness for a moment deceived the company about him. 238

'The Early Epochs of the Quest Chretien knew nothing of a bier and a dead body, in that place where the sign of arch-natural life abode in perpetuity ; those who took up the story in the footsteps of Gautier knew nothing also, and agreed to ignore his intimations of unexplained disaster. But Gautier or another, the bier was again seen at this visit of him who was unexpected, and a procession of canons and clerks recited thereover the Holy Office for the Dead, with a great ceremony of solemn voices intoning. The King also visited the bier and lamented over it. The pageant of the Graal was manifested, after the manner which I have described elsewhere, and Gawain saw it openly. At the conventional feast it was the Sacred Vessel which served so far as the food was concerned, but the sacra- mental communication was in one kind only, since the wine, as we have seen, was brought round by the butlers. Gawain, as in the previous case, asked all the necessary and saving questions, and was invited to solder the Sword, but he failed, as before, in this ordeal and learned only Aconcerning its history. stroke which was dealt there- with destroyed the realm of Logres and all the surround- ing country. In the midst of this narrative Gawain fell asleep at the table, and was left to repose. When he awoke there was neither hall nor castle, neither King nor chivalry about him, but a fairly garnished land lying on the brink of the sea and restored by so much of the belated question as he had asked the King. The common folk blessed him, and the common folk accused him, because he had not finished his work or insured their full felicity. Of such is the Quest of Gawain as it appears in the Conte del Graal^ even as the pillars of a temple which was never finished. It intervenes between the first and second visit of Perceval to the High House of the Hallows, but on Perceval's own Quest it has no effect whatever, and the narrative of the one ignores that of the other. It is said in some old fable which is not, I think, of the Graal, that Arthur and Gawain at last re- 239

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal posed in Fairyland. There are two classes of Knighthood that which goes in and returns, and thereof is Ogier ; that which enters but does not come back evermore, and thereof is Launfal. Now, Arthur returns in the fulness of the times that are to come, and, however these dreams may be, it is certain that the Peace of the King is not the peace of Gawain. In conclusion as to the Conte del Graal, after every allowance has been made for one statement in Chretien, from which it follows that the father of the Fisher King was, as we have seen, sustained by a Sacred Host taken from the Holy Graal, the keynote of the whole cycle is that it has no sacramental connections such as we find elsewhere in the literature. On this account, if indeed on no other, the Conte del Graal has nothing to tell us which signifies in respect of our true affair, except by way of its echoes and reflections from sources which do concern us nearly, and are better and fuller witnesses. It has every title to possess in per- petuity the kind of Perceval which it has helped materi- ally to create -in whom the Parsifal of Wolfram has little and the transfigured Knight of the High History has next to nothing at all. 240

BOOK IV THE LESSER CHRONICLES OF THE HOLT GRAAL



THE ARGUMENT I. THE METRICAL ROMANCE OF JOSEPH OF ARIMA- . The characteristics of Robert de Borron The Metrical Romance presented in general synopsis Specific considerations of the story The source of the text The Sacred Vessel as it is understood in the poem The Divine Communion in the tower of Joseph The Sacred Words and the theological position of the text The Institution of the Holy Table The mystery and fate of Moses The branches to follow The marriage of Alain and the succession of Keepers. II. THE LESSER HOLY GRAAL. Its critical and literary position in respect of the Metrical Romance The distinctions on matters of importance between the two texts Concerning the Sacramental occurrences at the Last Supper Concerning the Secret Words and their written form Con- cerning the triple guardianship Of words in Eucharistic consecration Concerning Joseph of Arimathxa The Con- version of Britain. III. THE EARLY HISTORY OF MERLIN. In what sense this branch follows from the Metrical Romance of Joseph The bare outlines of the story The story as a general introduction to the Romances of the Round Table Its palmary characteristics as an inter- mediate Graal romance The hermit Blaise The Graal in Northumbria The Secret records of the Hermitage The Round Table, its imputed connection with that of the Lord's Supper and with the table of Joseph The Void Seat The lacuna in the succession of texts Of him who 243

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal was to come^ and whether Galahad or another Some implicit* of the Legend. IV. THE DIDOT PERCEVAL. The higher considerations of the Quest The outlines of this Quest Points of correspondence with the early epochs Place of this quest, if any, in the triad of Robert de Borron Claims of the Questing Knight Analogies with preceding texts of the trilogy Discrepancies in the legend of Moses Of Merlirfs close in sanctity and not in enchantment Conclusion as to the Lesser Chronicles. 2 44

BOOK IV THE LESSER CHRONICLES OF THE HOLT GRAAL I THE METRICAL ROMANCE OF JOSEPH OF ARIMATH&A ROBERT DE BORRON was imbued, and even deeply, with the religious spirit of his period. I think also that in him there was a spiritual tincture which must have been Hea little rare at that epoch among courtly minstrels. had seen, according to his story, some part at least of the Great Book of the Legend, and perhaps it had changed his life. After the manner of his time, he was attached to a patron, and he wrote his poem for the preux and noble chevalier Walter Montbeliard a crusader when the Temple was at its glory. The poem opens with an account of the circumstances which led ultimately to the incarnation of Christ and is based on the fact that prior to this event, and prior indeed to the descent of Christ into Hades, good and bad were alike in Hell and less or more in the power of the evil hierarchy. The root-matter of the story can be expressed in a few words, and may be so offered to simplify the issues which are important to our purpose and must be dealt with therefore more fully. The vessel in which Christ prepared His sacrament, according to those words of the text with which we are already acquainted, was taken from the house of Simon by a Jew and delivered into the hands of Pontius Pilate. 245

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal Joseph of Arimathaea, with the assistance of Nicodemus and by permission of Pontius Pilate, took down the body of Jesus after the Crucifixion. The permission was a reward asked by Joseph in return for years of military service, and Pilate gave him in addition the vessel which the Jew had brought him. In that vessel Joseph received the Blood, which was still flowing from the wounds of Christ when the body was being prepared for burial. He laid the body in a sepulchre prepared for himself, and he concealed the vessel in his house. After the Resurrection the Jews sought Nicodemus, who eluded them by flight, and Joseph, whom they seized and imprisoned in a dark tower the only issue therefrom was at the summit, and ; this was sealed effectually by a heavy stone. Christ came to Joseph in the tower, brought him the Sacred Vessel and communicated to him certain secret words which were the grace and power thereof. Joseph remained for forty years in his prison and was sustained by the Blessed Vessel, as if in a condition of ecstasy and apart from any normal consciousness concerning the flight of time. Towards the end of that period, Vespasian, the son of Titus, being afflicted with leprosy and a pilgrim who reached Rome having recounted the wonderful miracles of Jesus of which he had heard in Palestine a commission was sent to Jerusalem to bring back some relic of the Master, if the report of His death were true. The commission in due time returned with St. Veronica, who carried the Volto Sanfo, or Sacred Face-cloth, and this effected the desired cure immediately. Titus and Vespasian proceeded with an army to Palestine to avenge the death of Jesus. It was in this manner that Vespasian found Joseph still alive in the tower the stone was removed from his sepulchre, ; and he who had been entombed, like Christ, like Christ also arose after this rescue was effected, the Emperor's ; son was converted by Joseph. The vengeance on the Jews being in fine accomplished, Joseph collected his relatives and many companions who had embraced Christianity at his instance, and by the will 246

The Lesser Chronicles of God the party started westward, carrying the Holy Graal. For a considerable period they took possession of a certain district and placed it under cultivation. At length a part of the company fell away from grace, with the result that a scarcity followed in the land, and the vessel was used to separate the good from the evil within the ranks of the people. For this purpose a table was dight after the manner of that which served for the Lord's Supper, and the vessel was set thereon. Before it there was placed a single fish, which the Divine voice of the Graal had directed Brons, who was the brother-in-law of Joseph, to catch in a neighbouring water. Between Joseph and Brons there was left a vacant seat corresponding to that which had been made void by the defection of Judas Iscariot. Under circumstances which remain vague in the story, a certain part of the company, being those who had kept in a state of grace, sat down at the table, and the rest who gathered about were of those who had lapsed into sin. The good people experienced all spiritual de- light and inward refreshment, but the evil were not filled, and they beheld nothing. When a question, put to them by one who was named Petrus, had elicited this fact, they were denounced as those who were guilty, and they departed in shame. It is indeed quite clear that they seem to have separated from the company once and for all. The exception was a certain Moses, who manifested great sorrow, though he was really an unbeliever at heart. His prayers in fine obtained him permission to take a place at the table, but the void seat was the one which alone was available, and when he sat down thereon, the Siege and its occupants were both swallowed by an abyss which opened beneath them. Meanwhile the office of the table had become a daily, as it were, a divine service, and so con- tinued till the company was divided further to continue the journey westward in successive parties. Alain, the son of Brons, and his eleven brothers under his guidance were the first to start, he carrying a certain proportion of what must be termed the revealed knowledge of the 247

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal Holy Graal, but it did not include apparently the Secret Words. The communication which had been made to Alain was because when the time came for Brons and his wife to seek for their twelve boys some kind of settlement in life, the eleven had elected to marry and were there- fore provided with wives, but he who was the youngest of all chose a life of celibacy ; he was therefore put over his brethren, and was taken by Joseph into his heart after a special manner. This party was followed by that of Petrus, whose connection with the family of Joseph, if any, is not stated but he was favoured in another ; manner which would seem to be more distinctive, since he carried a brief or warrant sent down from heaven itself, but of its contents or their purport there is no account given. His destination was the Vaux d' Avaron. The last to depart was Brons, apparently with the rem- nant of the people, and to him Joseph, by the divine ordination, delivered the Sacred Vessel and communicated the Secret Words. Joseph of Arimathaea seems to have remained behind though the text is corrupt at this point his mission being accomplished, and it would follow in this case that shortly after he was taken into la joie per- durable of the Paradise which is above. The theology is in part of the popular legendary char- acter and may seem a little fantastic even within these limits. For the early church and the writers thereto belonging in places remote from the centre, the world of Christian doctrine was a world not realised, and Rome might well have been astonished at certain things which were said and sometimes taught with all innocence of intention on the verges of the horizon westward. It would be easy to furnish examples of elements in De Borron which are not less than heretical from the doc- trinal standpoint, but there are indications also of curious learning and traces of strange sympathies. Among the latter may be mentioned a certain tenderness towards Pontius Pilate, the difficulty of whose position as the Procurator of Judaea, when acting almost under the 248

The Lesser Chronicles compulsion of a Jewish faction, was from any point of view undeniable. The important point, however, is that the sympathy reflects at a far distance the apocryphal legends which represent Pilate as one who was converted ultimately, who became a bishop of the Church and sealed his testimony with martyrdom. More noticeable than this, perhaps, for the ordinary reader is the writer's seeming ignorance concerning the Jewish doctrine of rest in the bosom of Abraham for those at least of the faith- ful departed who died in the peace of Israel. In the kind of research with which we are concerned here, we must be careful not to mistake the unintended blunder for the express statement. As a rule, it is easy to distinguish the simple errors, but occasionally a specific point may puzzle the most careful reader. While De Borron seems wholly unconscious of opposition to the claims of Rome, there is, of course, very full indication of a secret which inheres in the Graal and some ground for thinking that the rumour of this secret had gone forth abroad in the world prior to his poem. It is, however, a verbal formula, not apparently a doctrine. \"Those who can learn and retain these words/' says \" Christ to Joseph, be virtuous among people and shall pleasant unto God they shall not be forejudged in ; court, nor conquered in battle, so only that their cause is just.\" There is, however, a particular point which is a little opposed to my general view herein. Speaking of the common hell into which all souls went prior to the \" coming of Christ, De Borron says : was necessary It that the ransom of our first fathers should be provided by the Three Divine Persons who are one only and the same substance.\" Now, the identity of the Three Persons in Christ is unquestionably a heresy, but, as it so happens, this is the express teaching of Swedenborg, for whom Christ was the manifested Trinity. It is curious to recall the analogy, but such a notion could at no time have formed part of any secret doctrine, supposing that this were otherwise to be found or expected in De Borron. 249

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal So also we must not interpret as a trace of any secret doctrine the implicit of his comparison between the con- ception of Eve and the most Holy Virgin. He says in effect that Eve conceived in suffering, that the posterity of our first parents were, like them, doomed to die, and that the possession of their souls was claimed by the demon as his right. To purchase them from hell our Saviour was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and in this manner the sin of generation according to the common course of Nature was annulled by a virginal conception. But in the analogy there is no ulterior motive, no arriere pensee. The apostolic priority of Peter seems to underlie the following statement, which is put into the mouth of \" our Saviour : leave this example to Peter and to the I ministers of the Church.\" Comparatively early criticism looked upon this as equivalent to an acknowledgment of St. Peter as the official chief of the Catholic Holy Assembly, and remarked that no such admission is found in the Book of the Holy Graal, which, it should be said, is however untrue. If we pass now to the consideration of the Sacred Vessel and to the question what De Borron designed to signify thereby, we may note in the first place that, by the hypothesis of the poem, it is not visible to evil-livers, though it is evident that they en- circled the table at which they could not sit on the occasion when it was first manifested to the elect. The correspondence of this will be found much later on in the Parsifal of Wolfram, wherein the object which corre- sponds to the Graal was invisible to a pagan, though he was a man of noble life and a kinsman of the Secret House. De Borron speaks (a) of a vessel, not other- wise named, in which Jesus washed the feet of His disciples ; (#) of that passing fair vessel, already described, in which Christ made His sacrament, but the institution of the Eucharist is not mentioned more specifically ; (c) of the use by Pilate either of this vessel or another for the text seems doubtful when he washed his hands to 250

The Lesser Chronicles signify that he was not responsible for the judgment which he had pronounced unwillingly. As regards () I have explained in the summary that a Jew carried it from the house of Simon, when Jesus had been led forth therefrom, and brought it to Pilate. At a later stage Pilate took the vessel, and remembering thereof that it was beautiful, he gave it to Joseph, saying : \" Much hast thou loved this man.\" Joseph answered : \" Thou hast said truly.\" But the gift was less an instance of gener- osity than of the procurator's desire to retain nothing which had belonged to Jesus, whereby it was possible that he might be accused. Either the present state of the text or the poet's method of expression leaves things so much in confusion that a further question has arisen whether the piscina used for the washing of the feet was identical with that vessel which became ultimately the Graal. It has been suggested that for the last word in the line \"Ou Criz feisoit son sacrement,\" what was written and intended originally was the word , lavement^ but this is extremely unlikely in view of the general content and is not countenanced certainly by the Lesser Holy Graal. It has been suggested further that ( i ) St. John does not mention the Institution of the Eucharist and is the only Evangelist who does describe the washing of the Apostle's feet; (2) Robert de Borron knew only the Fourth Gospel, possibly through that of Nicodemus in the Christian Apocrypha. But all these questions are settled by the text itself in the discourse of Christ to Joseph at the beginning of his imprisonment in the tower. It is there said ( i ) that at the Last Supper on the Thursday Christ blessed the bread and the wine and told His disciples that they partook in those elements of His flesh and blood (2) that the table of that Supper should be ; represented in many countries (3) that the sacrament ; should never be consecrated without commemoration of Joseph, who had taken down the Divine Body from the 251

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal Cross and laid it in the Sepulchre ; (4) that this tomb should be signified by the Altar; (5) that the winding- sheet in which the Body was wrapped should be called the corporal ; (6) that the Holy Vessel in which Joseph received the Blood should be called the chalice ; (7) that the stone with which the sepulchre was sealed should be signified by the paten. Nothing can be more express, both as to the Mass and the Eucharist. Unfortunately, nothing can be clearer also in the mind of the poet than the con- tent of the Palladium of his legend being the blood of Three Persons in one God. And this, I think, is all that need be said in this place concerning the Cup of the Holy Graal in Robert de Borron. That Christ had in nowise forgotten one who had at need befriended Him was shown by Him bringing it into the prison, holding it in the hands of Him, while the whole tower was illuminated by its great light, for it was all full of the Holy Spirit. The Divine Discourse which occurs in this tower between the visionary Christ and Joseph is remarkable from several points of view, and especially by the cate- gorical assurance that the Risen Saviour brought none of His disciples to the conference, because none were acquainted with the great love which subsisted between Himself and His auditor. It seems, however, to have been a prototype of that love which is the immanence of Christ in the believing soul, and the palladium in Joseph's case was the symbol of the Redeemer's death, as it is the Eucharist in the external church. The specific and material explanation is that Joseph took down the body of Jesus from the Cross, and for this reason he was to be a partaker in all glory. Of the colloquy there were, in any case, no witnesses, and the Gospel narratives could offer no contradiction. I suppose that I should add an implicit which seems almost evidently to have been in the poet's mind that Joseph had made the Resurrection more, humanly speaking, possible by preserving the body as nearly intact as the 252

The Lesser Chronicles circumstances of the Crucifixion would permit. The difficulty which seems to have been present to the sub- surface mind of De Borron was perhaps not unknown to one Gospel narrative, which is careful to indicate that the bones of Christ were not broken on the Cross. The especial direction to Joseph was that he should guard well the Sacred Vessel, committing it only to those persons who were designed thereto, and by these it should be taken as given in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The possessors were to be three and no more, because of the Trinity ; they were : (a) Joseph ; (F) Brons and (c) the grandson ; of Brons, who was to be born in the fulness of time. It must be said that this enumeration appears to omit one person who, according to the text itself, was intended for some high office. When Joseph prayed before the Cup for guidance over the future of his company, recalling an ordinance which had told him that at what time soever he desired secret knowledge, he should come into the presence of the Reliquary wherein was the blood, he was answered by the Voice of the g'roarailoutshat the celibate son of Brons was to be shown the Sacred Vessel so that he could see the content thereof. Now this son was Alain, and it might be supposed that the venerable charge would pass to him from his father, more especially as, in spite of his choice, he was to beget the keeper in fine, and was not dedicated therefore to permanent celibacy, but held rather in maidenhood for a marriage which was predestined already. The instruction to Petrus announced that he was to await the arrival of Alain's son, who would reveal to him the virtues of the Holy Vessel being something omitted apparently in his undeclared brief or charter and would make known to him what had become of Moses. As to this ill-starred personage, who had suffered so strangely for parading a spurious election with intent to deceive those who were chosen in truth and faith, it is decreed that he shall be heard of no more in song or 253

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal fable till the knight comes who will fill the void seat. In this dubious manner it seems to be indicated that the wrath of the Graal would not be visited to everlasting. After the departure of the several bands of pilgrims, the poem comes to its conclusion for want of written materials. The author had carried it so far on the evidence of the sacred book to which I have cited already Hethe chief reference. leaves it in the expectation that he will recount later on as follows : (a) What became of Alain, whither he went, whom he married, and what heir was born to him. () Whither Petrus proceeded. (<:) The fate of Moses, so long lost. (d) The destination of Brons, who, outside all infer- ences of the logical understanding, had received the title of the Rich Fisher, on account of that single occasion when he angled in a certain water and caught one fish. Meanwhile, De Borron had apparently the records of the Fifth Branch, and to that he passed on, so producing a metrical romance concerning the prophet Merlin. Let us therefore on our part conclude also as follows : (i) The formulary which incorporated the Great Secret of the Graal was, without evasion apparently, recorded in the prototypical chronicle by which the poet was guided. (2) The Secret was itself denominated the Graal, as if by a general title, the name not being applied exclusively to the Sacred Vessel. (3) The last directions to Joseph regarding Brons, the second keeper, are these : Tell him how God did communicate unto thee the Holy Words, which are sweet and precious and gracious and piteous, which are properly called and named the Secret of the Graal. Hereto, therefore, as the obiter dicta at this still pre- liminary stage, the English Syr Percyvelle may be the nearest reflection of the quest-element in folk-lore, but the Metrical Romance of Joseph is the nearest and earliest reflection of all that which could have been imputed as 2 54

The Lesser Chronicles historical in any lost book. It is unalloyed by folk-lore admixtures, for no two things can be well less alike than the pre-Graal Feeding-dish and the Hallow of De Borron's Christian legend. The distance between the old myths and this devotional poem is too great for us to say that the latter is the archetypal state of this mythos after assumption by Christianity. There is no kinship. It is that from which the Lesser Chronicles and the Greater Chronicles draw at their respective distances, though from otherwhere they gathered many elements. Here at least there are no adventitious Hallows it is the Graal as the ; one thing only. And the Holy Graal is a symbol of the Angel of Great Counsel made visible. II THE LESSER HOLT GRAAL The first and only editor of this text put it forward as the original prose romance from which the poem was produced subsequently by some unknown hand, not so much writing ostensibly under the name of Robert de Borron as reflecting in rhymes and measures the actual words of the original. This view did not obtain at its period any special acceptance and has been long abandoned. The codex as it stands is an accurate rendering of the poem, plus certain variations and expansions, of which some are important to our purpose and must be recited briefly. But any literary or other distinction between the metrical story and its disposition in another vesture leaves the narrative untouched, both versions working from the same beginning to the same term, so that any general description of the Lesser Holy Graal would be superfluous in this place. The circumstances under which certain secret words were communicated originally, their transit westward, and the scheme designed for their perpetuation, constitute the 2 55

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal mystery-in-chief of the metrical romance, and we have brought away from it an irresistible inference that these words were a formula of Eucharistic consecration. The negative proof is that they were not used by Joseph when he had occasion to appeal for guidance to the Divine Voice which spoke from within or about the Sacred Vessel, or when he separated the grain from the tares in his band of pilgrims. The proof which assumes some aspect of a positive kind is that wonderful analogy which the text indicates between the Sacrament of the Altar and the Vessel, with its antecedents and environments. But the Eucharistic character of the Secret Words is made much more explicit in the Lesser Holy Graal^ for it is said, speaking of the Discourse in the tower : \" Thereupon did Christ Jesus teach him those words which cannot be spoken or written, should any one wish to do so, except he have read the great book wherein they are recorded, and this is the secret which is uttered at the great sacrament performed over the Graal, that is to say, over the chalice, and I Robert de Borron do, for God's love, pray all those who shall hear this present book in the reading thereof that they ask no further herein con- cerning the said matter, for he who should try to say more might well lie concerning it, since more he could in nowise tell, and such falsehood would profit him nothing.\" That the Secret Words were therefore committed to writing follows from both versions, and the suggestion of the Lesser Holy Graal is that the Great Book was written by Joseph himself. The additional light which is gained concerning the Holy Vessel is (i) that it was the blessed and very object wherein Christ sacrificed ; but this is less express than the words feisoit son sacrement, which I have quoted more than once from the poem ; (2) on the other hand, the prose version makes it plainer than the poem that the Vessel brought by the Jew was given to Pilate after the death of Christ, or coincidently therewith, for which reason it could not have been used by the procurator to wash his hands before he pronounced 256

The Lesser Chronicles sentence (3) the Vessel is described by Christ as la ; senefiance de ma mort. Among points left dubious in the poem we have seen that there is the question whether Joseph of Arimathasa remained where he was, not proceeding further westward than the point of separation determined for the whole company. It would follow in this case either that one legend concerning the evangelisation of Britain was un- known to Robert de Borron or that it was by him ignored. Now that which is left doubtful in the poem is carried into triple confusion by the prose version. One of its codices says that Joseph went into that country wherein he was born another says that he departed and came to ; his term in the land whither he was sent by Jesus Christ, yet it seems to follow from this second text that the whole company was already in la bloie Eretagne and that Joseph had converted it newly to the belief in Jesus Christ. It will serve no purpose of mine to enlarge upon minor debatable points which occur in the prose version, as, for example, on the doubt which it creates whether (a) the third keeper of the Graal will be the son of Brons, by which we should understand Alain ; () whether he shall be the son of his son, as in the metrical romance ; and (c] whether the triple guardianship, corresponding to the Holy Trinity, should be enumerated after Joseph has surrendered the symbol of his mission, which is the reading of one codex and follows also from the metrical romance. It is sufficient to state in conclusion that as regards the second table, and the reason why it was established, the texts in verse and prose are both in agreement that whatever the needs of the com- pany there was (a) no miracle in the multiplication of food () only a spiritual refection (c) the essence of ; ; which was to fill the participants with grace ; (d] one proof being that the fish of Brons becomes wholly sym- bolical and figures continually at the service. 257 R

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal III THE EARLY HISTORT OF MERLIN The Mystery of the Holy Graal was a mystery of grace behind Arthurian literature till the time came for it to be manifested at the period of the Quests, and among the texts in which it is exhibited as if working from afar and vaguely there is that which I have termed for convenience the Early History of Merlin, being the transcript in prose of another metrical romance by which Robert de Borron proceeded, for want of intermediate materials, from the history of Joseph to the period which just antedated the birth and life of King Arthur. The tradition of the one romance is carried over by the other, and as such it is at once interesting extremely and im- portant for our purpose. With the story itself we are concerned only in the least possible degree. It narrates, in the first place, a conference of demons that seems to have been summoned immediately after the Descent of Christ into hell to consider the best means of reducing to a minimum the opportunity of human redemption which had been inaugurated by the sudden translation of all the just of old from the supposed power of Infernus into the joy of Paradise. The conclusion attained was that if only some emissary of theirs could be born on earth, having for his father one of the evil person* and for his mother a woman in the flesh, they would recover some part at least of the patrimony which they claimed in souls. There was one in the council, belonging to that averse hierarchy which is termed the Powers of the Air, who had the gift under certain conditions to make earthly women conceive, and he went forth upon this mission. What he did, however, was to surprise a pure maiden, apart from all knowledge of hers, at an unwary moment. After this manner was Merlin born into the world, in the accomplishment of which plot we are translated, with 258

The Lesser Chronicles no suggestion or manifest sense of the intervening cen- turies, from the days which preceded the Ascension to the reign of Vortigern in Britain. The device of per- dition had gone, as usual, astray, and that utterly ; for the mother was saved spiritually by her innocence and, on the discovery of her predicament, by recourse immediately to the offices of holy religion. She was accused indeed before the judges of the country, but the child himself saved her, for, being a babe, he yet spoke now with the cunning which might be ascribed to his father in Sheol, and now with the subtlety and foresight which suggested the intervention of another and higher power, as if this had taken him for its own purpose into its safe custody. Throughout the story Merlin, in virtue of his dual origin, is in part true steel and in part clay. Robert de Borron borrowed from antecedent materials which we can trace in their larger proportion, but the high spirit of his religious disposition worked upon that which he assumed, and wrought a great change therein. His Merlin has come really as if in the power of a mission which had been imprinted with a Divine seal, and though he is at best an admixture, and though the character of some of his actions is stained enough, he who has created him in literature more even than he has derived, does not weary of saying that God, who spared Merlin's mother in the body of her was able to save him in the soul, or at least contribute thereto, because of her perfect reconciliation with Holy Church. She had indeed sinned not at all, but had once, under great stress, forgotten to pray, and the visitation which came upon her was the hand of a providence rather than a hand which chastised. According to one text, with which we shall deal later, she became at length a nun, and so passed in sanctity. To pass thus also was evidently De Borron's intention as to the son's destiny, and at the end of the Lesser Chronicles we shall see how it was fulfilled. Meanwhile, the expressed mission of Merlin was after an unwonted manner to teach the love of Jesus Christ and the life 259

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal everlasting. The note of this intention occurs early in the story, when it is said that God took the fiend-born child to His own use, though the mystery is the manner of that use his double nature was such and so granted ; that he might yield to God His part and -to the fiend also his own. There are other stories which tell how Merlin dwelt amidst illusion, and how at the end he passed therein, but these are not of Robert de Borron. The exigencies of intention rather than of the story itself take Merlin to Britain at a period which, according to his years, would be early out of reason for his work, but he who was never a child was more already than a man. There is no need to recite under what circum- stances, initial and successive, he became the high coun- cillor and worker of many miracles to four kings, each after the other : Vortigern, Pendragon, Uther Pendragon and Arthur. What remains to be said of his history will best fall under the considerations which now follow. It is perhaps the Merlin cycle which offers the most curious among what I have termed the Lesser Implicits of the Graal literature. I must put them at a certain length because of their apparent importance, and will say in the first place that on Robert de Borron's part, as on that of certain other and unknown writers, there Towere two tangible purposes in full view : ( i ) connect Merlin with all that Graal Mystery which was antecedent to the ascribed times of the prophet; (2) to identify his function with the termination of the Graal marvels under the pretext of times of enchantment or Wetimes adventurous. are drawn through far tracts of speculation in seeking to understand what sub-surface disposition of mind could have actuated these purposes, but at the moment we are concerned in ascertaining how they are carried out in the story. There was a hermit named Blaise, to whom the mother of Merlin had recourse in her unexpected difficulties, who had been also her spiritual adviser previously. The 260

'The Lesser Chronicles text says that this hermit was an exceeding good clerk and subtle, for which reason Merlin prayed that he would become his recorder-in-chief, not only of all his deeds, but of things heard and seen which he might well Athink that no creature could express. consent was obtained only after the holy man had conjured the querent in the Name of the Divine Trinity that he should deceive him in nowise but Merlin answered ; that the records would rather keep him from sin than dispose thereto. It is in this way that Blaise is one of its characters even from the beginning of the romance, but his chronicle itself began long prior to the birth of Merlin, for at the instance of him who was to prove himself a prophet in Britain, he wrote first of the great love between Christ and Joseph of Arimathaea, of the lineage of Joseph, the names of those who were to be the guardians of the Graal, of Alain and his companions and whither they journeyed, of the departure of Peter westward, of the transmission of the Holy Vessel from Joseph to Brons, and of the death of Joseph. The history of these things was to be joined with that of Merlin, and the two recitals were to form a single book, complete in respect of everything, save only the Secret Words revealed to Joseph by Christ, whereof Merlin could say nothing the reason of which is to be inferred from the Quest-matter of the Lesser Chronicles, namely, that he had not received them. In accordance with the general trend of the earlier history and of the personages concerned therein, Merlin announced his intention to go west that is, apparently out of Brittany into the land of Vortigern, or Greater Britain, and Blaise was also to follow, betaking himself to Northumbria, where it is said that the guardians of the Graal were then dwelling, though they are not specified by name. The first recompense of Blaise in this life was to be united with these Wardens, but thereafter it was to be joie perdurable. The Graal is the talisman of the whole story, and hereof is the repose of the Graal that 261

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal they who have achieved the search shall have rest in the term thereof. And the book made by Blaise was to be called while the world endured the Book of the Seynt Graal. In this manner did Merlin, though he was not in any sense a custodian of the Hallows, make a certain claim upon them in the dispensation of their graces and rewards. It was not, in the symbolical sense, of an idle nature, not the artifice of an impostor ; rather it was of set purpose and as if the external sign of some secret warrant, in virtue of which the highest branch of the HeGraal history is connected indissolubly with Merlin. laid the scheme, and the Hallows conformed thereto, the end being the termination of those dubious times, the dereliction of which we have heard of so often and can as yet understand so little. Of such is the Graal in the Early History of Merlin. But this is also the first romance which, in the chrono- logical succession of texts, apart from priority in time of literary production, introduces the Third Table and the mystery of the Siege Perilous. It may be held to con- stitute another side of its particular claim concerning the British prophet. Those who have followed so far the history of the Second Table will perhaps have recalled already that a vacant seat was left of old at the Passover for the unexpected guest, and it is still left by the Jews. There is also that custom, beautiful and piteous, of leaving a vacant seat for the Angel of Peace. I do not know what memories of this kind were present to the mind of De Borron when he borrowed from those who had preceded him the idea of the Round Table and attributed its foundation to Uther Pendragon, not to King Arthur, Merlin, however, being in either case the instigator of its institution. With his reflex of the spirit of sanctity, as conceived by the British prophet, the knightly table was something more than a substitute, and assuredly, in some later aspects, it reflected on earth that which belongs to heaven. In the course of his proposal, Merlin told Uther 262

The Lesser Chronicles Pendragon the story of Joseph of Arimathasa, and how in the desert places, the sowing of which had become void through the sin of some who went forth, the Second Table had been instituted to separate the good from the evil. The Third was to be established by Uther in the Name of the Trinity, and it was to be set up at Cardoil in Wales for a certain Feast of Pentecost that is to say, of the Holy Spirit. As there was a place that was void at the Table of Joseph so there was to be one now, which should not be filled in the days of Uther Pendragon, but of the king who was to come after him. The knight who would then fill it was not as yet born, which is colourable enough as a pretence in respect of the Perceval who was to follow as questing knight according to the Lesser Chronicles. But the codices have been edited in variant interests and the English rendering, represented by an unique text and drawing from what source I know not, adds words as follows which could apply only to Galahad : \" Ne he that shall hym engendere shall not know that he shall hym engendere.\" On the other hand, the Huth Merlin says that he will be engendered by him who ought so to engender him, but as yet he has not taken a wife, nor does he know that he ought to engender him a passage which, after much circumlocution, comes to nothing. The text suggests otherwise that before the predestined hero takes the void seat he must accomplish the adventures of the Graal, which is contrary to all the texts, historical and otherwise. The Vulgate Merlin says Andin effect that he who fills the one will fulfil the other. the English version : \" And he that shall a-complysshe that sete must also complysshe the voyde place at the table that Joseph made.\" This seems to create on the surface an almost insoluble difficulty, but the meaning is probably that in the secret and holy place where the Graal abides, the service of the Second Table is held still, as it was in the days of Joseph, that he who enters into the House shall take the seat reserved for him, and that the Table shall be in fine complete. 263

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal Of such was the second mission of the prophet Merlin ; but the third was the conception of Arthur and the conduct of all those events which should lead to his high coronation as King of Britain. I need not reproduce in this place the familiar story of Ygerne, the faithful wife of the Duke of Tintagel, and of the sorcery by which she received Uther Pendragon in the likeness of her husband and so brought forth the great king who was to come. The circumstances of the imbedded sword which led to his ultimate recognition, though he had been reared as the reputed son of a simple knight, are or ought to be familiar. It was to achieve his prophetic purpose that Merlin assisted Uther over those things which led up to the conception of Arthur, since the latter was to con- summate the great intent of the Round Table which was begun by his father. The conception was one of a triad of Merlin, of Arthur, of Galahad which all took place under false pretences. Merlin was conscious that he had sinned in respect of this business, and apparently he sought to make amends by assisting the subsequent marriage between Uther and Ygerne and by his arrange- ments in respect of the charge of Arthur in childhood. It should be noted in fine (a) that no Keeper of the Graal is mentioned in the Early History of Merlin^ though the locality of its abode is indicated ; ($) that there is only a covert reference to Moses ; (<:) that certain sources are obvious for certain texts, but there are important respects in which all the early romances seem echoes from far away of a book that had never been seen by their writers, though it had been heard of by a general report ; and (d) that this statement is intended to override all their reference, actual or imaginary, to mysterious sources of information which are not if they were ever extant. 264

The Lesser Chronicles IV THE DIDOT PERCEVAL Without instituting in the present stage of the question more than a parallel, the Quest of the Graal is the adventurous mission of those who go forth out of earthly houses, who depart from tables of wonder, from the enchantments and illusions of magicians after the manner of Merlin when Merlin was not at his highest and issue into strange lands, some unprepared enough, but some under spiritual guidance, observing the ordi- nances of instructors and looking for a mystical place. Few are destined for the perfect fulfilment of their object, but that which opens for these is the path of heaven. Though time and place are imputed, and this of necessity, it can be said scarcely that such limits are native to this manner of research. There is, according to the Hebrews, a palace at the centre which sustains all things, and in the terms of another symbolism it is the sanctuary of that which in later times was called the Holy Graal. The first consideration which must be kept present to the mind, as if here were also an implicit, in dealing with our whole subject, is that nothing on its surface differs in doctrine or in specific institutes from the beaten tracks of the faith delivered to the saints, and yet all undergoes a great transfiguration. There are many quests in folk-lore which, in their bare outlines, are analogous to this quest, with due allowance for the dis- tinction of motive and all that belongs to the class of voided marvels. There is also the great debate concern- ing initiation and its purport, which seems to hold a middle place between that which is below and is noth- ing and that which is above and is all, tending to the same term as the higher, and exhibiting after what manner that which is mortal puts on immortality in virtue of high election. It is well to recall these things, because 265

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal the text with which we are dealing, though it has its claims and intentions, is far from this term. From the Merlin there follows directly the Didot Perceval as the Merlin Quest par excellence, but it gleams dimly through a vague species of cloud and as there is ; much which preceded the romance of the prophet, and remains among the implicits of the literature, so there is much which might be supposed to come after the Quest, as, for example, the rewards which are somewhere held in reserve for those who practise holiness. There is no doubt that up to a certain point the Didot Perceval connects logically with the two poems which, by the particular hypothesis, were designed to lead up there- to. Its ascription to Robert de Borron, by the secondary and reflective way of a prose version, has been rejected by certain students in the past, but the state of the case is doubtful and opinions vary. It is almost impossible to read the opening portion without feeling that here is the genuine third part of the trilogy ; while the fact, so fre- quently exemplified, that Perceval remains throughout a virgo Intacta, is in perfect harmony with the mind of the metrical romance. The Early History or first part of the Vulgate Merlin follows directly from the poem of Joseph of Arimathasa, and so far as we can ascertain it closed for Robert de Borron at that stage, when it could, without any violation, be merged in the Perceval legend, by which the tradition is continued without a break of any kind. One other favourable point, and assuredly these points are many, is that unlike the 'Book of the Holy Graal, which makes an effort in this direction but fails manifestly it does not seek to fill the gap left by De Borron's missing branches it does not mention Petrus, ; his Brief notwithstanding ; as to Brons, it says only that he is old and full of infirmity ; as to Akin, he is dying. All this tends to show that the intermediate promised branches were non-existent rather than lost, and I say this remembering that one of the unprinted Merlin codices speaks of a text which contains the marriage of Alain. 266

The Lesser Chronicles To conclude as to this question, the early history of the prophet specifies at the term thereof that Arthur, after his coronation, held the kingdom of Logres long in peace, while it leaves Merlin as his councillor. The Perceval opens with an account of the prophet's instruction to the King concerning the Round Table and the Graal mys- teries which went before its institution it is only at the ; term of the Quest that Merlin passes into voluntary and, as one would think, ascetic retirement, free from personal enchantment and having delivered Britain from spell. The later Merlin texts, on the contrary, intern the prophet, and then, and not after, lead up to the Galahad Quest. It is difficult therefore to say that the Didot Perceval does not reflect, from at hand or afar, the lost romance which completed the trilogy of De Borron. Perceval was the son of Alain le Gros, the grandson of Brons, and the third of that earthly trinity which was destined to possess the Graal. While Arthur was holding high festival at London and was listening to the counsel of Merlin, the voice of the Holy Spirit spoke to Perceval's father he being near his end and informed him that Brons, the Rich Fisherman and the Warden of the Graal, was in the isles of Ireland, and that the Holy Vessel was with him. He was old, as I have said already, but he could not seek refuge in death till he was found by the son of Alain, had communicated to this son the grace of that vessel, and had taught him the secret words which he learned himself from Joseph. To express it more nearly in language of romance, the Quest, which is the intention of the story, must be fulfilled in all perfection. Thereafter his infirmity would be healed, apparently by the medicine of eternity, or, as the text says, by his entrance into the great joy of that Father in Heaven whom he had served always in time. The youth, Perceval, was therefore directed to repair to the court of King Arthur, and it was promised him that in this place he should hear such tidings that he would be brought in due season to the 267

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal house of the Rich Fisher. When Alain had received this direction, he bowed his head and entered himself, as one who arrives beforehand, into the Company of Christ. Perceval, in his outward seeming, has little title to participate in the mysteries, except the title of his geniture. He is brave, savage and imperious ; he is also chivalrous, but he is without the spiritual chivalry which we find in the great Quest. He was then living with his mother, who, as we can infer subsequently, sought to dissuade him from the journey ; but obeying the Divine Voice, which had come also to him, he set out for the court of King Arthur there he abode for a ; season there he received the grade of chivalry. At ; the court he saw Aleine, the niece of Gawain, the niece also of the King, and the text says that she loved Perceval with all love that was possible, because in addition to his bravery he was also beautiful. It came about that she sent him red armour to wear on her behalf at a tournament in this manner he ; was accounted her knight, and she shared in the glory of his achievements. But hereafter nothing follows con- cerning her. Perceval was proclaimed the best knight of the world after overcoming Lancelot and others of the high company at the joust, it being then the Feast of Pentecost. There was high feasting in the hall after the tournament, and Perceval, who was to some extent exalted, desired to occupy the seat left vacant at the Round Table for the predestined third custodian of the Holy Graal. King Arthur endeavoured to dissuade him, remembering the fate of Moses, but Athe prayers of Gawain and Lancelot prevailed with the monarch. tremendous confusion ensued notwith- standing, over which rose the voice of an invisible speaker, bearing once more the same witness which the Voice of the Spirit had borne recently to Alain, but revealing further that the healing of the Rich Fisher depended on a visit to his castle which must be paid 268

The Lesser Chronicles by the best knight of the world, who must ask further concerning the secret service of the Graal. By the instructions which would follow, a period should be put to the enchantments of Britain. The voice also spoke of the dolorous death of Moses, who, according to the text otherwise, was to remain in the abyss until the days of Anti-Christ. The Quest was undertaken by Perceval, and there were others, Gawain included, who also ventured forth therein, but it is stated that of how they fared the book, which is the proto- type, says nothing. Our text, however, shows on its own part that one of the knights was slain. King Arthur deplored the Quest, as he does in the romance of Galahad. The course of Perceval's adventures covers many of those incidents with which we are acquainted already in the Welsh Peredur and the Conte del Graal. There is, for example, the visit to that strange castle wherein he plays chess with an invisible opponent, and is mated. From this follows some part of the episodes which concern the quest of the Stag's Head in company with a hound belonging to a maiden of the Castle. For our purpose it is more pertinent to mention that Perceval visited his sister, from whom he learned the story of their father, his own early history, and the prophecy concerning the Graal. He heard further that his mother was dead at grief for his departure, and though, under the direc- tion received, he cannot be said to have deserted her, it is accounted to him somehow as a sin after the con- fused manner of materials drawn from many sources. He visited also his uncle, the hermit, who is the brother of Alain, and is seemingly one of the twelve brethren who were children of Brons. It is obvious therefore that the note of time is again wanting entirely, as for any purpose of the story this perpetuation of ordinary life through the centuries has no meaning. Perceval confessed to his uncle and heard from him that at the table instituted by Joseph he also assisting the Voice of the Spirit commended 269

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal them to journey far into the countries of the West, and ordained in particular that the Rich Fisher should go forth into those parts where the sun set. In fine, the hermit told him how the son of Alain le Gros would perform such feats of chivalry that he should be called the best knight of the world. It is obvious that this information does not cor- respond very closely with any extant text of Graal history. The uncle continued to speak of that peculiar and holy service to which the youth had been called, and counselled him to be pure in his life but he did not, as in other ; quests, advise him to beware of idle speaking or of the curiosity which leads to questioning. After these things Perceval continued the Quest, and among other adventures he met with a knight who, owing to this encounter, had missed by seven days the crown of the world's knighthood, but who ultimately vanished from sight. He saw further the wonder of two children disporting themselves in a tree they spoke to him of the Terrestrial Paradise and ; of the Holy Spirit ; they also directed him on his Quest, so that he fared better according to this story than he did in the corresponding episode of the Conte del Graal. Perceval reached in fine the Castle of his grandfather, the Rich Fisher, where he was received after the mode of chivalry, and the Warden of the Graal was borne into his presence in the arms of sergeants. They sat down to table and the procession of the Hallows entered in the accustomed manner. Perceval was said, however, to remember one counsel of caution which he had received from his uncle in the matter of questioning, from which it is certain that the text follows some prototype which it does not reproduce faithfully. He was also outwearied by vigils on two previous nights, and his host, when he noticed this, directed the table to be removed and a bed to be prepared for the knight, who retired thinking deeply of the Lance and the Graal, pro- mising himself that he would inquire of the pages to- morrow. The voice of the invisible speaker which had directed him and the others with such utter plainness at 270

'The Lesser Chronicles the court of King Arthur had lapsed apparently from his mind, and from that fatal inattention he passed into the forgetfulness of sleep. On the morrow he went down into the courtyard, to find his horse and arms awaiting him, but there was no one else to be seen. He was cursed by a maiden in a forest adjoining the Castle, and was told that, so only that he had asked the question, the prophecy of our Saviour to Joseph would have been accomplished ; but of this prophecy we find no particulars in the antecedent texts. The Fisher King would have been restored to health, and there would have ceased those enchantments of Britain the nature and cause of which still fail to appear. Perceval sought in vain to rediscover the Castle, for over the whole land he could find its trace no longer. As in previous texts, he returned to the maiden of the chess-board, with the dog to her belonging and a stag's head. She desired him to remain in her company, but he left, with a promise to return, saying that otherwise he would be false to the vow which he had made. I infer that in this manner he preserved his de- sired purity, but he fell into other evils during a pilgrimage of seven years which followed thereafter. Through distress at being unable to find the Fisher King, he lost all memory of God until he met with the pilgrim company on Good Friday, who asked, as in previous texts, why he rode armed for purposes of destruc- tion on such a sacred day. His better nature then returned to him, and before long he was knocking once more at the door of his uncle the hermit, to whom he confessed all. It was his intention to revisit his sister, but he was told that she was dead these two years past. After certain further episodes he met with Merlin, who reproached him for neglecting the Quest, much as he was reproached by a certain hutsman in one of the additamenta to the poem of Gautier. Perceval heard also that the health of the Rich Fisher was still such that he remained at the point of death, though he could not pass away. But his prayers were going up for his grandson, and by 271

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal the will of God he was to be the guardian of the Precious Blood. The authority throughout is the record of Blaise, to whom Merlin returned after this conversation and recounted that which had passed, as he does so continually in the course of his own romance. Perceval at last reached the Castle of the Rich Fisher for the second time again he beheld the Graal, and on this ; occasion asked concerning its service, at which the King was cured, and in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, all was changed about him. The relationship between them was declared, and Perceval being instructed in the history of the Hallows was led into the presence of the Holy Vessel, where the Voice of High Counsel told Brons to communicate the Secret Words. In the fulfil- ment of this command the ancient Warden might have been still speaking when the soul passed from his body, and Perceval saw how the angels bore it to the kingdom of Heaven, unto the Father whom he had served so long. Perceval remained in the Castle, practising wisdom, and there was an end to the enchantments of Britain. It was as if an interdict had been imposed and a legate had removed the interdict. While things were so ordered in the secret sanctuary, there were events in the outer world which led up to the passing of Arthur, who was carried into Avalon to be healed of his grievous wounds by his sister Morgan le Fay. Merlin was still in evidence, passing to and fro between the king's court and the sanctuary of the Holy Vessel, where then, as subsequently, Perceval seems to have divided his office of Warden with the scribe of the records thereof. After the death of Arthur, Merlin appeared for the last time, recounting the woes which had befallen, whereat the place of the Hallows became a house of mourning and a chapel for the office of the dead. The prophet took leave of the Wardens, because it was God's will no longer that he should go to and fro in the world, and he would therefore betake himself, as if for a last refuge, to a hermitage in the forest which 272

The Lesser Chronicles encompassed the castle. It follows that the term of Merlin is revolutionised in this romance he does not ; pass in enchantment, inhibition and the folly of morganatic ties, but seeking the peace of God, and choosing the life of contemplation. Thereafter he was seen no longer, and there was no further story concerning the Holy Graal. The Didot Perceval and the Parsifal of Wolfram are the only texts which leave the last Warden alive and dwelling in the sanctuary. It should be noted further that the Quest in this instance does not involve the destruction of Logres or a fatality to the Round Table, though this fatality occurs. The point is important, because it is another note of the correspondences between the Didot Perceval and the Early Merlin. The secret conspiracy, planned, as one might say, in the sanctuary, against the great chivalry was undreamed of by Robert de Borron and is peculiar to the Greater Chronicles. The unanimity of the Lesser Chronicles resides, among other things, in the fact that they are all texts of the Secret Sanctuary, and they emanate by the hypothesis therefrom. They suggest no public office there is no ; travelling of the Graal. Britain suffers during the Quest period from an enchantment, but it is not described, and it is to be doubted whether Britain knew of it. It is the most occult of all processes and the most withdrawn of all localised mysteries. Brons and Alain have done nothing in the land they are aliens of sanctity, with the burden ; of the years of the Juif errant upon them ; and they abide in seclusion. The Didot Perceval is scarcely at peace with itself over some of its elements, nor is it at peace with those texts antecedent from which it follows that the third keeper will (a) meet with Petrus, who carries the Sacred Brief, and with him compare their knowledge in common of the Graal Mystery ; () find Moses, and this under circumstances which suggest some palliation at least of that which he has suffered through the ages. I do not 273 s

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal think that these points make void its place in the trilogy, because there are several respects in which all the Graal books, like other romances of chivalry, are conven- tions of the cohorts of sleep, and there is sometimes a distracting spirit moving through the great dream. 274

BOOK V THE GREATER CHRONICLES OF THE HOLT GRAAL



THE ARGUMENT I. THE BOOK OF THE HOLY GRAAL AND, IN THE FIRST PLACE, THE PROLOGUE THERETO BELONGING. The claims and defects of the Text regarded generally The secret of this cycle Its imputed authorship Its hypothetical divisions The Hermit of the Legend What he read and saw at a Mass of the Presanctified Disappearance of the Secret Book The Quest of its recovery The time for the Atranscript thereof. II. NEW CONSIDERATION CONCERN- ING THE BRANCHES OF THE CHRONICLE AND CONCERNING ITS MAJOR BRANCHES. Divergence of the extant manu- scripts The incorporation of De Borron elements The point at which their tradition is broken, and this completely The arrival at Sarras Events which lead up to the con- version of this city The Spiritual Palace The ordination of Joseph II. His later life Of Evalach, the King of Sarras, who was afterwards Mordrains Of Queen Sarracinte Of Seraphe, who was also Nasciens Of Celidoine, the son of Nasciens The Ship of Solomon The Building of Corbenic. III. THE MINOR BRANCHES OF THE CHRONICLE. The Later History of Joseph of Arimathesa The Life of Petrus in Britain Of Brons and Alain Variations in the History of Moses Of Simeon and his Brethren Concerning the first Galahad The Genealogies Conclusion as to the Book of the Holy Graal. IV. SOME LATER MERLIN LEGENDS. And firstly as to the scope of these Texts (A) The Vulgate Merlin Its Antecedents in 277

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal History Merlin as the chief promulgator of the Graal Mystery The House of the Holy Vessel Of the second Nasciens and his history King Pelles of Lytenoys The AMaimed King The Daughter of the House son of King Pelles Tidings of the Graal in Britain (H) The Huth Merlin Its false ascription Its consideration as a stately romance The intention of the story Of secret records The branches of the story The Internment of Merlin Concerning the father of Perceval The Institution of the Round Table The Vacant Seat The Hidden Life of the Holy House The Dolorous Stroke The Secret Powers of Avalon. V. THE GREAT PROSE LANCELOT. The ante- cedents of the story An undeclared Mystery of the Graal Of Perceval in the Great Quest Particular Graal tra- ditions Missing elements of Quest The Genealogy of Lancelot His life in Faerie Of Moses and Simeon Of Gawain at Castle Corbenic OfLancelot and the Lady of the Bath Helayne, the Maiden of the Graal The conception of Galahad. VI. A PREFACE OR INTRODUCTORY PORTION APPERTAINING TO ALL THE QUESTS. Claims of the questing AKnights And further concerning Gawain pentagram of chivalry The Mystery of Divine Providence manifested in flesh. VII. THE LONGER PROSE PERCEVAL. Its imputed antecedents The initial point which constitutes a departure from tradition After what manner the departure is per- petuated throughout Of pageants abroad in the land The Earthly Paradise The state of King Arthur Of Gawain's visit to the Graal And that of Lancelot The death of Guinevere Visions of the King The King of Castle Mortal The death of King Fisherman The capture of the Graal Castle The removal of the Hallows The siege and victory by Perceval The reign of the last Keeper The distribution of the Hallows The departure 278

The Argument of Perceval. VIII. THE QUEST OF THE HIGH PRINCE. Of the generation of Galahad Of some things which followed thereafter The circumstances of his first mani- festation Its mystic environment Of the Eucharist in the Quest Of arch-naturalfeasting The Quest in brief outline The liberation of Simeon The release of King Mordrains The voyage in the Ship of Solomon The term of Quest at Corbenic The Mystery unveiled The Ascent of Galahad The doom ofearthly Knighthood. IX. THE WELSH QUEST. The position of this version Its variations in summary Wanderings of the Graal The Dolorous Stroke Specifics of the last scene Additamenta to the Greater Chronicles. 279



BOOK V THE GREATER CHRONICLES OF THE HOLT GRAAL I THE BOOK OF THE HOLT GRAAL AND, IN THE FIRST PLACE, THE PROLOGUE THERETO BELONGING THE Book of the Holy Graal is the most conscious, most cumbersome, most artificial romance in the literature. It is that also which is beyond all prodigal of wonders, and its wonders are the least convincing. In so far as con- cerns the history of the Sacred Vessel, it must be said that it materialises the symbol and it also distracts the legend. Robert de Borron finished his metrical romance by confessing that for want of materials he must, for the time being, hold over those branches of his chronicle which were intended to deal with the further adventures of Brons, Alain, Petrus and the connected characters of the story. In the meantime he proceeded to the life of Merlin, bridging the gulf of centuries by a promise to retrace the path when he had obtained the necessary data, though it is possible enough that the intervening distances of time may have spelt little to his mind. All that could be construed as wanting is supplied by the Book of the Holy Graal, leaving nothing undone, but working through I know not what mazes of great en- chantment. I have said that the artifice of the design which obtains also for its expression stands forth in 281

The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal Afull manifestation, even upon its surface. hand more sparing might have worked greater marvels and left some sense of realism, at least in the order of faerie. And yet the prolix history has a certain touch of enchantment, all paths of disillusion notwithstanding. From whatever point of view it is approached, the entire text will prove to be sown with difficulties curious things in truth of the worlds within and without, but even as difficulties these have also their secret charm. It has vast sections of unnecessary matter which suggest an imperfect art of mere story-telling, and it also deals with materials which do not belong, more especially at its own period, to the horizon confessed by that art. Moreover, nothing is really finished, for, as one of its sub-titles indicates, it is the first branch of the romances of the Round Table, or it is rather the prolegomenon to these. A cycle of the literature of chivalry is supposed to follow thereafter, which may mean that the writer had a mind to go further, or, alternatively, that his intention was to present the collated antecedents leading up to other docu- ments which in one or another form were there already in being. Accepting either alternative, this prolix in- troduction in general, which presupposes and from which ex hypothesi there follows so great a cloud of romance, offers herein a first point of distinction from the trilogy ascribed to Robert de Borron. The latter lies, compara- tively speaking, within such a narrow compass and yet has a claim to completeness within its own lines and measures. There are other distinctions, however, which are not less marked in their character and are very much more important. The account which I propose of the document will differ from ordinary critical and textual apprehension by way of direct summary, since it is actuated by exclusive objects which connect with the design of my study. As the Lesser Chronicles of the Holy Graal are con- cerned with the reservation of a great secret or sacra- mental formula, so there is also a secret in the Book of 282